No more caged families: Scrap the Safe Third Country Agreement

Ripping screaming children from their mother’s arms. Locking babies in cages. Criminal prosecutions. And now, plans for indefinite detention and the immediate mass deportation of people fleeing violence, back to their home countries.

Trump’s doubled down on his cruelty towards people seeking asylum in the US — and we can’t just sit back to find out what might come next.

Canada needs to act immediately to scrap the Safe Third Country Agreement — an outdated agreement that refuses asylum seekers entry into Canada if they arrived in the US first — as well as an end to Canada’s restrictive quota system, and the so-called safe country list that limits the number of asylum seekers Canada offers protection to.

The United States isn’t safe. Everyone arriving from the US must be able to stay here permanently.

Let them in.
Let them stay.

Why is this important?

We launched this campaign in 2017 after Trump's inauguration. The following text is from this original campaign:

After just days in office, President Trump is already beginning to implement his racist, anti-immigrant agenda. He’s about to launch a major effort to hunt down and deport millions of undocumented people and asylum seekers in the US. Many went to the US to escape violence, and they could be persecuted or killed if they’re sent back to their countries of origin.

Shockingly, if an asylum seeker currently in the US showed up at the Canadian border trying to escape deportation to an unsafe country -- Canada would turn them away.

Canada doesn’t accept any asylum seekers who come to Canada via the US, because of an outdated law called the “Safe Third Country Agreement”. This law prevents most people fleeing violence or persecution from seeking refuge in Canada if they land in the US -- deemed a “safe country” under the law -- first.[1]

Except remaining in Trump’s America is unsafe -- particularly for poor and racialized people. For many people, deportation may also be a death sentence. The Safe Third Country Agreement is the reason refugees put their lives at risk trying to cross the US-Canada border secretly rather than going through official channels. Some people have lost fingers and toes to frostbite - just narrowly escaping death - by making this trek across the border in subzero winter temperatures. [2]

We demand that Trudeau repeal the “Safe Third Country” agreement in order to allow people fleeing violence and deportation in the US to seek safety and protection in Canada. Trump’s deportations could start any minute -- and with real people’s lives on the line, the stakes couldn’t be higher. It’s our ethical responsibility to act, and it cannot wait.

Sign the petition now to demand that Trudeau rescind the exclusionary “Safe Third Country” agreement.

Deportations are just one part of Trump’s racist immigration policies. In one day alone, he started the construction of US-Mexican border wall and committed to defund ‘Sanctuary Cities’ which protect undocumented people from deportation. He also tripled the number of immigration enforcement officers in an effort to ramp up deportations, and has either restricted or outright banned immigration from Muslim-majority countries. [3]

This is just a part of the larger fight for migrant justice. Immigrants on both sides of the border are routinely denied immigration status, forced into precarious work, and denied access to essential services. Stay tuned for upcoming actions to make our communities safe for all people, regardless of immigration status. Visit www.nooneisillegal.org to learn more and join our movement.